


Savior in the Sea

by Homo_Parade



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Anon Prompt, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 19:49:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1197264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Homo_Parade/pseuds/Homo_Parade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean Kirschtein is mad. Furious. Enraged. He hates living with Eren and seeing the affection he rolls around in. However, he stumbles across a curious object; a body! This is no ordinary human though...<br/>Prompt from an anon on my tumblr. AU where Marco is a Cecaelia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Savior in the Sea

Jean was mad, infuriated, even enraged. He was so angry; he could just hurl an entire building into the ocean that glistened innocently beside him as he trudged through the sand. It was Eren who got him in a mood; he’d tried to lay claim on Mikasa, when she _obviously_ had feelings for Jean… Jean couldn’t even kid himself. He knew she was too good for him. That didn’t make him any less angry at Jaeger though, in fact it just made him worse. Knowing that he’d never be good enough for her was a real stab in the chest.

A small stone flew through the air after being kicked by Jean’s boot.

 “Why?” he groaned as he looked to the waves, “Why can’t Mikasa just look at me? I’m never going to turn this shitty luck around…” he sighed and continued his walk, albeit slower and less angry. He couldn’t imagine that a girl so kind and beautiful like Mikasa could cause him so much pain.

 “Oh Eren, I want to touch your manly arms and your chest,” Jean imitated Mikasa, adopting a higher pitch, “I want to hold your hand and kiss your face and suck your cock,” he chuckled mirthlessly to himself. _That’s pretty accurate_ he thought. He knew it was terrible-he usually didn’t make fun of girls-but he was just so mad he didn’t care. In fact he-

Wait, what was that?

Jean’s thought was cut off by an unusual sight. There was something lying on the sand… Jean couldn’t identify the odd shape. He thought it was an octopus, because he swore there were tentacles, but as he got closer…

 “Oh my god,” Jean tried not to gasp as he identified a human face, “hey!” he shouted, “Are you okay?” No reply. Quickly, without thinking, Jean ran over to the person, a male. Who was this person, why were they lying on the beach, seemingly unconscious? Did they need help? Jean didn’t know what he could do in all honesty, but he couldn’t just leave him there.

But then Jean saw the tentacles growing from the male’s lower-torso and froze.

He’d never been so shocked in his life. “What the fuck…” he whispered, as if trying not to awaken the strange creature in front of him. It was half man, half octopus… Nothing he’d ever seen or heard of before! “So I didn’t imagine the tentacles,” he muttered to himself. From his safe distance, he inspected what he could see. The creature’s face was like a childish man’s, sleeping and innocent, with freckled constellations and a head of dark hair. His tentacles matched him in a way; dark like his hair, but with several small rings; almost like tentacle freckles. If he wasn’t so afraid, Jean may have even thought that it was cute that his facial freckles matched the rings on his tentacles.

 He dared himself to take a step, and another, and another, until all his hesitant steps brought him to the side of the creature. A quiet, raspy breath could be heard from its lips. These breaths were slow and shallow, as if it was on its last limb of life.

Jean couldn’t stand by and watch it die.

Using as much strength as he could muster, Jean picked the creature up from its armpits and slung it over his shoulder, letting its tentacles drag on the floor. He grunted under the weight, but made for the ocean. Calm and quiet, the ocean accepted him gently. The salty water seemed to lap purposefully at the tentacles, trying to pull them in to the ocean where they belonged. Before too long, only Jean’s head was above water. He cradled the creature close to him, looking at his face. His eyelids fluttered slightly before suddenly opening. The creature squeaked loudly and clambered out of Jean’s hold slapping the human’s face with one of its tentacles in the commotion. It proceeded to sink under the surface and leave poor Jean alone and confused.

 “Hey, I didn’t mean to scare you!” Jean called out, hoping the creature knew English. It was unlikely it would, but still… “You were drying out on the sand! I only brought you back into the water,” Jean waited a moment before a head appeared from the gentle waves, with two brown eyes staring into his. “I’m Jean…”

Jean was incredibly nervous. He was out of his element; this creature could easily kill him now. However, the strange creature only crept slightly closer to him, lifting up a dark tentacle to press gently against his cheek. “J…Jean…” it mumbled before dashing away into the water. “W-What?” Jean stammered, reaching up to feel his cheek.

He managed to swim his way back to shore, climbing out of the salty water and lying flat on the sand. “How am I going to explain this to everyone?” he asked himself, laughing gently, “I wish I’d taken my phone, nobody would believe what I saw…” Even he didn’t believe it. After another few minutes of lying in the sun, Jean pulled himself to his feet and walked back to the apartment he shared with Eren, Connie and Armin.

Somewhere, deep underwater, a freckled cecaelia was blushing furiously.

~*~

 “I’m telling you, you’re suffering some sort of heat stroke,”

That was Connie’s dismissive response. As Jean expected, nobody believed his tale. Eren’s response was a lot ruder. “You’re bullshitting me!” he scoffed, turning away from Jean and requesting with a sharp tone that he leave him alone, and stop telling lies. It was true, he swore it! He could still remember the weight of the thing as he dragged it into the ocean. He still recalled every detail of the creature’s face, the freckles, the deep brown eyes. He still remembered how it squished one of its tentacles onto his face before fleeing.

 “Ugh,” Jean groaned as he flopped onto the couch. His third roommate, Armin, was typing away busily at his laptop, a gentle frown on his face. Jean didn’t have the energy to bother with telling Armin his story; the kid was super intelligent, and going for a degree in marine-biology. There’d be no way he’d believe a stupid fairy-tale like Jean had experienced. Besides, Jean tried not to be around Armin for too long. The two of them were ‘a thing’ back in high school until Armin realised his ‘undying love’ for Eren. As much as Jean liked being friends with the kid, he was still a little bitter.

Miraculously, though, it was exactly the kind of fairy-tale that Armin was obsessed with.

It was later that evening, after Jean had showered away the salt and the possibility that he actually helped a half-man half-octopus thing into the ocean. Connie was probably right; it was probably a heat stroke. He probably collapsed and fell into the water somehow… Somehow. Even that sounded more reasonable than what had supposedly happened to him. So Jean lay down on his bed, relaxing before he retired for the night…

 “Cecaelia!”

Jean bolted upright as his bedroom door was slammed open, and the short blond boy was shouting through it. His eyes were wide and his grin as almost diabolical as he stormed into the room and set himself on Jean’s bed.

 “Armin, out of all people you should know how important it is to knock!” Jean suppressed the shout coming from him, leaving only a thoroughly displeased tone to his voice. Armin looked down at his hands thoughtfully-as if recounting an event-and Jean supposed that Armin was remembering the time that Jean had caught him and Eren making out in the janitor’s closet of the high school.

Armin didn’t dwell on it for long though, because his face was as bright as earlier. “Cecaelia are the half-human half-octopus people of the ocean!” Armin said, explaining his earlier outburst, “This creature must be what you encountered today! This is brilliant Jean, absolutely brilliant!”

Jean’s brain took a moment to catch up on how fast Armin was speaking. When it finally did, his eyes widened. “You know what they are?”

 “I know only myths and tales Jean, but I always knew…” Armin looked up dreamily at the ceiling, “I always knew the ocean was a mythical place. Who knows what else is out there…?”

Jean had to snap his fingers in front of Armin’s face to attract his attention again. The blond coughed to hide his embarrassment at being so distracted, back eh easily snapped back to his excitement. “Tell me Jean, what was it like? Was it masculine or feminine? Did it have any weapons? Does it speak our language? What was its name?”

Jean spent the next twenty minutes or so discussing the cecaelia with Armin. It was gentle and shy. Obviously masculine, but with soft facial features. It didn’t carry any weapons; it didn’t even seem able to defend itself. It briefly spoke Jean’s name before fleeing. It didn’t say its own name…

Armin took notes diligently on his iPad, nodding very now and then after Jean spoke. He told Jean of all the luck he had that this creature hadn’t turned on him, about how possibly Jean’s luck was also turning.

On the pier of a local beach, two girls were giggling and gossiping, not knowing of the freckled cecaelia below their feet, listening and waiting to hear that one man’s voice.

~*~

Jean often found himself walking that beach. He didn’t like admitting that he was looking for the cecaelia, or the fact that the thought of perhaps seeing him again made Jean in a slightly better mood. Only slightly. About three times a week for eight months, Jean walked the beach, his eyes trained on the water. Their innocent lapping was almost teasing now. _Come in Jean Kirschtein_ it seemed to say to him as the waves rolled up the sand, _you want to see the cecaelia don’t you?_

Yes, yes he would like to see the cecaelia. However, it didn’t show, not even once…

Jean considered that perhaps he had forgotten his saviour, and swam away to live a trouble-free life at sea. That sounded so dreamy, like something Armin would daydream about, but to Jean it was a longing. He thought about the cecaelia daily, and despite not seeing it for several months, he still walked the beach.

The little freckled cecaelia watched him every day.

He had grown fond of his human saviour. _Jean_ was all he had to identify him as, but it was plenty. When Jean’s voice floated over the ocean waves, Marco would listen. He’d hear him grumbling, always with that annoyed and upset tone. He didn’t understand all the words his human said, but there were two things that came up a lot. It didn’t take the cecaelia long to realise these were also identifications, or ‘names’ as he learned from a girl and a boy meeting for the first time on the shore.

The cecaelia had been too shy to tell Jean his name. He wished he had. He wanted to hear Jean’s voice sing his name, to call out to him. Maybe that would urge him out of hiding.

The freckled cecaelia knew that he cared deeply about this human boy Jean, from the moment he awoke. He didn’t even really remember how he’d gotten onto the sand; only that in the process, he’d hurt half of his tentacles, rendering him immobile and sentencing himself to die by burning in the sun. He accepted this fate solemnly, trying to sleep away the majority of the burn. It was when he felt his body touch water that he began to stir, and only when he was fully submerged that eh awoke.

Jean’s face was the first thing he saw, and it astounded him.

He’d never seen a human up close. He was warned that they were a dangerous species; living predominantly on land and quite lazy, but also capable of amazing feats. His younger sister, whom he’d been separated from for years, had wondered aloud whether the humans possessed magic. Their mother had told them tales of explosions and terror caused by humans, so Marco had grown up with a sense of wariness towards them.

This little cecaelia was a curious one, however. He hung around after he made his escape and listened to the strange noises he made. He was trying to communicate, Marco could tell. He only picked up one emphasized word, however.

_Jean._

It was how he was identified, what he was called in his world. And the cecaelia muttered it all the time. Whenever he was lonely, or if he saw something exciting, or if he just _felt_ like it, he would say the human boy’s name. Jean. Because all he wanted was to be able to communicate with him, and show his appreciation.

He didn’t know that his human also longed for their meeting.

~*~

Jean had been angry, just as angry as he had on that day almost eight months earlier when he found the cecaelia. He was just so sick of sharing a damn apartment with Eren. He was forced to watch as Mikasa and Armin fawned over him, like flies around a piece of shit. Because that’s what Jaeger was: a piece of shit. Jean detested him, the way he walked, the way he talked, but most of all, the way he had everything that Jean wanted without even trying, and didn’t appreciate any of it.

He was loved and cared for and he didn’t even fucking care.

Jean just had to get out of the apartment. He couldn’t be caged up in there anymore, alone while surrounded. It was a feeling akin to being suffocated. Even though it was pouring down with rain, even though Armin warned him against it, Jean left. And he walked. And walked. And walked. He walked through chilling winds that cut through his thick jacket, rain that sliced at his face and eyes, wherever they could reach. He walked until he made it to his destination, despite never setting one. He had walked to the beach.

Why? Why did he always walk here when he was upset again? He almost didn’t remember. He almost didn’t care. He just wanted that feeling of comfort that came from being at the beach, near the water…

Jean was irrational when he was mad. He abandoned his rational thought back in the apartment where Eren was lounging around in his piles of affection, as if it were as common as dirt to him. With logic left behind, Jean walked down the pier. He could hear the waves screaming at him from where they hit the wooden planks, begging him to turn back. The wind tried to push him away, but still, Jean kept going. Why turn back? What was there? Only loneliness. Jean just wanted to be with someone who didn’t treat him as a second, or a third, or even a last.

It was with this thought that Jean’s balance was suddenly knocked away, and he fell into the inky black torrent below.

~*~

The cecaelia hated storms; he had for a long time. It made the visitors of the beach go home. Nobody sat on the pier, talking amongst themselves for Marco to listen to. He didn’t even have any fish to chase around. Storms were so boring for him.

Well, until Jean arrived, that was.

At first, he didn’t think that was his human. He was excited nonetheless that he’d have some company, but his excitement grew as he spotted Jean’s characteristics. The strangely bi-coloured hair, the angry scowl on his long face… Yep, that was his human all right. Jean was walking along the pier, bundled in several layers of soft material known as ‘clothes’. Jean sure was wearing a lot of clothes. Perhaps they helped him hide from storms? He was looking particularly gloomy that day as he fought the wind, walking close to the edge of the pier.

The cecaelia’s excitement only grew. However, his initial excitement was overridden by pure terror as Jean’s form fell into the water.

 “Jean!” he called out, unable to think of anything else to say or do. Within seconds, the human’s form was submerged in the water, out of sight. For the first time in a long time, the cecaelia felt pure anxiousness. Without another thought, he dived underwater, searching for his human. He found Jean quickly-floating around in the water lifelessly-and scooped him into his arms. His human was visibly unconscious. The cecaelia was desperate. He didn’t want his human to drown, like he’d seen many humans drown out at sea. He’d always been too fearful of the humans to do anything… But not this time. He could do something.

He could save his human.

~*~

 “Jean!” Armin called out in surprise, wrapping himself around the cold and shaking figure standing in their doorway, “you had us all worried!”

Jean stood still, allowing Armin to wrap himself around Jean and warm him. The little blonde’s noise attracted attention from the other residents of the apartment.

 “You’re back!” someone said, and over Armin’s small body Jean could see many people in their living room.

 “I called everyone when you went missing,” Armin explained, pulling away from Jean and sniffling discreetly, “We were going to search for you shortly if you didn’t come back…”

Jean looked over at everyone, who all wore concerned looks on their faces, even Jaeger. Bertholdt was noticeably sweatier, but was comforted by Reiner, who had a relieved smile on his face. Sasha and Connie were grinning and blubbering beside them about how glad they are that Jean didn’t get abducted by aliens or some shit. Even Annie was there, looking apathetic but noticeably less tense than usual. Mikasa was pulling Armin back and handing him off to Eren so that he could be comforted. Even Mikasa, beautiful and devoted to Eren, looked concerned.

Jean didn’t know how to feel. “I’m sorry,” He said simply, hanging his head down, “I won’t do anything stupid again…”

 “We forgive you!” Sasha called out, launching past everyone to tackle Jean. “Ew, you’re soaking wet! What happened?”

Jean wanted to laugh. Nobody would believe him, only himself. Only he knew what had happened…

~*~

When Jean awoke, it was not in water, or on land, but in gentle arms that cradled his weak and shaking form. He opened his eyes slowly to the dark sky, the pouring rain, and a face that smiled at him with all the joy in the world.

 “Jean, you’re okay!” the voice was familiar, as was the face, but in his daze Jean couldn’t remember where. All he could process was that this person, this man, was carrying him in the water. Looking over to the side, Jean noticed they were approaching the land. Wasn’t Jean on land before? How’d he get into the water?

_Why is he so familiar?_

A sudden remembrance fell into place in Jean’s mind. The freckled face, the gentle way this man said his name… It was all the same as the creature he saved that one day. Suddenly, he felt the urge to act as the creature did on their first meeting by jumping out of his arms and trying to escape, but that feeling was fleeting. Instead of struggling to flee, Jean struggled to remember what the creature was called. “C…Cecaelia,” he muttered past the drowsiness, just loud enough to be heard over the raging winds and pounding rains. The creature carrying Jean stopped, locking eyes with him, and smiled.

 “Please, call me Marco,” He said, and finally, the cecaelia had an identity, both to Jean and to himself. What use was a name if nobody knew you? Nobody would need to identify you. Marco’s name was, to him, useless; at least until he told it to Jean. Now, he truly was Marco.

 “Marco,” Jean repeated, watching the cecaelia’s face light up.

 “Yes, and you are Jean,” Marco replied, “Do you remember saving me?” after a nod from the human in his arms, Marco continued. “I’ve been waiting to talk to you Jean, and properly thank you for what you did,”

Jean sighed in relief. So, Marco hadn’t forgotten him. He even remembered his name… Jean was still drowsy, and leant against Marco’s warm, bare chest easily. His eyes closed on their own accord, and he felt himself drifting…

 “No!” Marco shrieked, shaking Jean a little. The human opened his eyes wide and glared at the creature carrying him. Marco gave a nervous little laugh. “I’m sorry… I thought you were dying,”

Jean actually laughed, leaning his head back and dipping his hands in the water. The waves beat against him roughly, but playfully. He was glad Marco was carrying him; otherwise he could have gotten swept away. “Thank you, Marco,”

Marco stopped moving towards the beach to give Jean his full attention. “No, thank you,” he said simply before looking back to the not-so-distant shore. “You need to go home…” Jean nodded, as if he was answering a question rather than listening to a statement. The cecaelia looked back to him with a disposition of grief. “Will I see you again?”

 “Every day,” Jean responded, smiling again, “I’ll see you every day, Marco, if you want me to,”

Marco nodded enthusiastically, carrying Jean at a faster pace. Upon arriving on the shore, Marco placed Jean gently onto his feet, holding him a second after to ensure that he still had his balance. It was only when he stood beside Marco that Jean realised Marco’s enormity. He stood taller than a human on his tentacle legs, but despite his threatening size, Jean wasn’t afraid. Marco had saved him, as he had saved Marco. There was no fear. There was only the silent trust that existed between them, and the desire to learn more about the other.

 “Thank you again,” Jean said, nodding his head to Marco in appreciation, “I can get home just fine. Be safe, and I’ll visit you tomorrow,” Jean saw Marco’s face fall, and he began to curl his tentacles around himself, much like how a human would wrap their arms around themselves for comfort.

 “Okay…” He replied, looking down at the sand for a moment before looking back at Jean. “I really like you,”

Jean was more than a little surprised at how blunt the cecaelia was, but apart from that surprise he was overjoyed. “The feeling is mutual,” he responded, turning away slightly. “Bye Marco,” he waved to the cecaelia and began to walk up the beach, through the rain and wind. He almost didn’t hear Marco’s own response.

 “Bye Jean,”

~*~

Jean sat on the couch, wrapped in a towel and holding a mug of hot chocolate as his friends conversed and laughed around him. He felt like a different man; all these people were concerned about him, something he didn’t realise before. Even so, there was still the one creature lurking in his mind, the one he knew cared for him most, and that was a cecaelia named Marco.

When everyone left, Jean told Armin what had happened. The blond was excited beyond words, especially at the discovery that the cecaelia had been able to communicate. “They are incredibly intelligent after all,” he had said, typing notes diligently as Jean explained what had happened. It was only when Jean told Armin what Marco had said to him before he left that Armin fell quiet.

 “What is it?” Jean asked, noticing the excitement drop in the younger man’s face.

Armin looked away distantly, heaving out air before turning back to Jean. “I want you to be happy,” he started, confusing Jean. He _was_ happy, the happiest he’d been in a long time. Before he could tell Armin this, the blond began to speak once more. “If you care about Marco, then I suggest you don’t take any risks. If anyone but you and I see him, he’d be in grave danger…”

Jean froze instantly. He hadn’t even thought of the possibility that being with Marco could cause him danger. “What do I do then?” He asked Armin, unable to think of not seeing him again. He’d promised he’d see him every day…

 “My grandfather gave me his boat,” Armin said, “You can take it out whenever you like to go see Marco. If that’ll make you happy,”

 “Yeah…” Jean grinned, “Thanks,”

And so that is how Jean Kirschtein finally got to spend time with Marco. Of course, he couldn’t possibly take the boat put every day, but on the days he did visit he spent ages talking to Marco, swimming with him and being with him in general. When people began to ask where Jean was going, he said he was going on a date, because if he was being completely honest with himself he had fallen so stupidly in love with the cecaelia it wasn’t even comical.

Only Armin knew the truth, and he had sworn himself to secrecy. Just knowing that someone was making Jean happy gave him joy for his friend.

Their love was unconventional, foolish even, but Jean couldn’t care less. Marco put hm first; Marco cared for him and doted on him. Marco was all he ever wanted, all he cared about, and Jean dreamed every night about going back to see Marco on the boat again.

Jean was happy, truly and wholly, and so was Marco. They both had a being to belong to, and to confide in. Nothing could ever beat that. They got to spend the rest of their healthy lives with their saviours.

**Author's Note:**

> I apologise if you managed to read all the way through this, god it's long and shitty. Thanks for reading, and I really hope that not only the anon but everyone else enjoys <3


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